Health Care!

People, I have been very concerned about the health care system here in the US for a long time. As a graduate student, my funding did not include health insurance. I have been paying a TON for this for a long time. Right now I am on R's insurance. He is lucky enough that his funding pays for his, but not for mine. When I start my new full time job in September my employer will give me insurance and we will all of a sudden be saving about $2000 on health insurance. Seeing this stark difference close up really makes me appreciate how lucky people are who have employers who insure them. And how bad it is for people who work slightly less than full time, or not close to full time, or who are laid off, or who have employers with bad insurance plans. Really, for my entire adult life I have always considered the possible cost of care when deciding whether or not to go to the doctor. This is not right. People should go to the doctor when they are sick -- not wait around trying to figure out if they feel really bad enough or not to make it worth it.

So I finally got off my butt today and read about the actual health care bill. Since there is so much going on with people misrepresenting what the bill actually does, I recommend everyone start there as well. Then, please write your elected representatives and tell them you support the bill. You can find those people and very convenient web forms here and here.

It won't take you very long, and it is really time we fixed health care in the US. Really, it is appalling.